130 
IMPROVEMENT OF FLORISTS FLOWERS. 
for that flower has advanced as little as any 
for the last thirty yeai's, at any rate until the 
last two or three, during which some rather 
pretty varieties have been added to our pre- 
vious stock. I, like many others, have been 
almost tired of raising seedlings, because I 
have not gone the right way to work. In- 
deed, the saving of Auricula seed has been 
made such a matter of difficulty, that one has 
been glad to let a whole collection take their 
chance, and then any pods that could be found 
were treasured up like gold, sown in due 
season, patiently tended a year or two, and 
as they bloomed a few at a time, not a flower 
could be found worth saving of a hundred 
that opened. If out of a large batch a few 
were saved to be tried another year, they dis- 
appointed, and season after season has this 
been our fate years ago, until the plain fact 
came across us, that flowers, far removed 
from their natural state, have a strong dispo- 
sition to go back to their original. The 
Auricula is what many florists call a miffy 
plant; that is, it is very easily mismanaged, 
and often goes off without the owner being 
able to assign a cause. That it requires at- 
tention and watchfulness is quite true, but it 
is not a difficult plant to grow, if the culti- 
vator will but leave nostrums alone, and grow 
them in pure loam and vegetable mould; or, 
if that cannot be had, loam and well-decom- 
posed cow-dung. I have known old growers 
to go long distances to get the mould out of a 
hollow willow-tree, which has been consi- 
dered, I know not why, to make the best 
vegetable mould. Probably, if vegetable 
matter be thoroughly decomposed, there will 
be very little difference in the essential qua- 
lities. I have grown things in great perfec- 
tion with mould taken from a heap on which 
waste vegetables of all kinds were thrown ; 
even the weeds, the sweepings of grass from 
the lawn, the leaves from high trees, all heaped 
together, and rotted together. The only par- 
ticular care required in keeping the waste of 
vegetables to rot is to prevent anything but 
vegetable matter to be thrown on it. I should 
prefer above all things the mould from rotted 
turfs, where the loam was inclined to be 
sandy, but if it were not sufficiently so I would 
add silver sand. I have been more particular 
about the soil than I otherwise should have 
been, because I have seen hundreds of seed- 
lings in very improper soil, and known them 
to dwindle and damp off until the whole were 
gone, and that after growing — or rather exist- 
ing — nearly two years. The way, then, to 
save the seed of Auricula is to take the best 
of the show flowers, the most flat, the most 
round, the most rich in colour, and the most 
handsome trussers. But unfortunately nearly 
every Auricula has some bad fault. The 
most scarce quality of all, perhaps, is flatness; 
the best in this respect is the worst in many 
others. For instance, Cockup's Eclipse is the 
most decided of all in the remarkable flatness 
of its petal, and it is a pretty colour; but it 
has a wofully large tube, and the interior of 
it is dirty white instead of bright yellow. 
Hedge's Britannia is another remarkably flat 
variety, but it has its faults, and plenty of 
them : Gains's Privateer is a splendid colour, 
but often a crumply flower, and an awkward 
truss : Page's Champion, the great favourite 
of the day, is the brightest looking variety 
grown, the colours are decided and well de- 
fined, but in other respects it is very faulty ; it 
is much disposed to crack, difficult to open flat, 
paste very coarse, nevertheless it is upon the 
whole, whether rightly or wrongly, the fa- 
vourite : Booth's Freedom is a rich looking 
flower, not only opening flat, but more than 
flat, for the face of the flower is often round- 
ing the edges, literally turning back. Not 
one of these flowers are at all perfect ; but to 
secui*e good seed, with the chance of approach- 
ing nearer perfection than we have yet got, I 
recommend the following varieties, or as many 
of them as can be got conveniently, and to be 
grown together in the same frame : — Dick- 
son's Matilda, Page's Champion, Lee's Colonel 
Taylor, Booth's Freedom, Pollett's Highland 
Boy, Stretch's Emperor Alexander, Smith's 
Waterloo, Hudson's Apollo, Dickson's Earl of 
Errol, Dickson's Duke of "Wellington, Dick- 
son's Prince Albert, Lightbody's Lord Lyne- 
doch, Fletcher's Ne plus ultra, Waterhouse's 
Conqueror of Europe, Dickson's Unique, 
Oliver's Lovely Anne, Kenyon's Ringleader, 
Syke's Complete, Hedge's Britannia, Gains's 
Privateer, Macklean's Unique, Fletcher's Mary 
Anne, Dickson's Duke of Sussex, Taylor's 
Glory, Taylor's Incomparable, Popplewell's 
Conqueror, Thorpe's Magpye, Redman's Me- 
tropolitan, Netherwood's Othello, Dickson's 
Apollo, and Bury's Lord Primate. There 
must be no other kinds in the same garden 
or near it. Here they must not be treated 
as if they were going to be shown ; they 
may have the wind, and the air, and an occa- 
sional mild shower, be covered from frost, but 
treated roughly in mild weather; the flowers, 
however fine they may be, will be spoiled of 
course by the admission of rain to them and of 
wind, but they will seed the more freely, and 
that is all you require. Take especial care 
that they have enough water to refresh them 
as the flower advances, and as the pods swell; 
let them have all the sun, and, above all 
things, see that the drainage is good, and that 
water will run through the compost freely. 
Here let the pods remain on the stem till they 
are turning a little yellow, when they may be 
picked off singly, and put in paper bags. In 
